There was a thread about this on Warlock Bloodfire's Satanism myspace group, I felt it was worth mentioning here as well. This is concerning maturity amoung Satanists. Far too often I see "so-called" Satanists fixated on religions like Christianity. By proxy, it becomes their faith. Satanism is about indulgence, not self-destructive motives of useless hate. Knowing the difference defines a Satanist from a mere anti-Christian devil worshipper!

Perhaps, though, it bears noting that there is a fine line between hatred of a religion, and hatred of the effects said religion has outside of it's story book.

That line, I think, is of some importance, as it reveals a considerable portrayal of one's mind by observing whether they obsess over the book/religion itself, or the undesirable side effects that come with it.

One obsesses with the story, another obsesses on how those that read and believe that story and/or listen to the interpretations spouted by their 'leaders'. The latter could effect you in undesirable ways if overlooked, so I suppose a bit awareness in this field couldn't hurt. Forewarned is forearmed and all that jazz.

Just an observation by the Nogi.

_________________________
Within the eye of the storm of conformity, creativity runs rampant. The key then, is to surround yourself with the shaven fools if one is to truly be free.
-Nogi
The death rate on Earth is: .... (computing) .... One per person.

Sadly, that thread was posted there out of necessity. At the time I posted it, too many group members were posting threads that just had no real purpose other than to trash-talk other religions.

If a person says something like "I hate Christianity" in my group, I expect them to be able to back that up with valid reasons why (and why they think they should care at all) along with productive solutions.

In other words, the focus should be on living Satanism, not vicariously living Christianity. Thankfully, most of the people here already get that part.

We don't have to "bash" Jihadists verbally, we have Satanists in uniform in Iraq KILLING them!

_________________________Live and Let Die."If I have to choose between defending the wolf or the dog, I choose the wolf, especially when he is bleeding." -- Jaques Verges"I may have my faults, but being wrong ain't one of them." -- Jimmy Hoffa"As for wars, well, there's only been 268 years out of the last 3421 in which there were no wars. So war, too, is in the normal course of events." -- Will Durant."Satanism is the worship of life, not a hypocritical, whitewashed vision of life, but life as it really is." -- Anton Szandor LaVey“A membership ticket in this party does not confer genius on the holder.” -- Benito MussoliniMY BOOK: ESSAYS IN SATANISM | MY BLOG: COSMODROMIUM | Deep Satanism Blog

Couldn't agree more- great post. I even said the same thing on the boards couple of days ago. If there's something that the SB thought me it's to be open-minded. I'm open minded towards everything my knowledge is not sufficient of: Paganism, Reincarnation, ET's etc... My family's best friends are practitioners of the Provoslavic/Orthodox Russian Church and they are great people. I wonder how many of them Hardcore-Satanic folks know what the inverted cross is really all about. Do they know that it was first presented in Christian connection by a student of Jesus, who felt not worthy enough to be crucified 'upwards' like his master?

_________________________
"What do you mean?
"Do you wish me a good morning, or mean that it is a good morning whether I want not;
or that you feel good this morning;
or that it is morning to be good on?" (Gandalf, The Hobbit- J. R. R. Tolkien)

I think it's natural for many Satanists, particularly those new to identifying themselves as such, to do a lot of religion bashing. And it can certainly be a fun thing sometimes. I enjoy witty forms of blasphemy as much as the next Satanist. Hell, I typically start my show every week with a bit of religion-bashing humor.

But I imagine the compulsive sort of religon bashing is rooted in having some sort of emotional ties to those religions. Satanists may be "born not made", but a life of anti-Satanic indoctrination doesn't immediately vanish from upon reading The Satanic Bible. As Dr. LaVey said, it's one thing to accept something intellectually, but another thing to accept it emotionally. For many I've notice that it's a passing phase. Eventually, they learn not to entertain Jesus freaks and focus on other things.

Amd when it comes to having a forum on Satanism, whether it's this one or one of the countless others out there, I agree that the xtian-bashing thing quickly becomes tiring and unproductive. I'm not really interested in seeing yet another web site that lists Bible contradictions, or lyrics from some heavy metal band out to market attention for themselves. The Satanic Bible provides a core definition for a religion with an applicable philsophy, and the applications are only limited to the Satanist's imagination! There's no need to remind us of what Satanism isn't when there are so many opportunities to tangibly show what Satanism is.

I never really got the whole hating a religion thing. As a matter of fact, I love religions.

I am one who loves different cultures and a lot of different cultures were infuenced by religion. I like reading the mythology behind many religions and discussing the philosophy with others.

What I don't like is hard-core religious people. People who have no identity other than their religion. People who can't make any choices in life without opening a religious text. People who claim the book they read is better than any other book. People who bash other religions because they have nothing else better to talk about than how more correct they are then others.

I laugh at these " so-called" Satanists becuase they are acting the same way these religious people are. They are advertising their religion as their main identity. They claim that the books they read are better than any book around (The Satanic Witch is a great book and all, but I would rather curl up to Federik Pohl). You often see these kinds doing book reviews on books that have to do with their religion to people of said religion who have more than likely have read said book. The people have to sit and think about their choices being "Satanic" or not. Another thing they have in common is most of them more than likely didn't read the entire book.

It boils down to these "so-called" being the exact same kind of people, they just wear a huge Baphomet instead of a giant cross.